In today’s world cash is not king now it is a little 2” x 3.5” piece of plastic. Adding convenience and speed to our daily lives when it comes to paying at the register.
Along with anything that involves currency there are those who try and in many cases make a living off of praying on those who conduct the business transactions, debit and credit cards now more used than ever. These cards offer an added security over carrying cash as well as requiring a pin number.
However the more tech savvy criminals have figured out a way to affix a card skimmer to a card the actual card reader on any convenient point of sale terminal reader you card while you pay at the pump or go to an ATM machine they are getting not only your numbers but in allot of cased they are able to get the pin number as well with their own pin pads laid over the actual number pad to record your pin. Some skimmers have small cameras to record you entering in your pin. Card skimmers have become much cheaper and more sophisticated adding to the problem.
The bad guys like to use ATM machines and Gas pumps because the ease of putting on and removing the skimmers plus they generate allot of traffic anyway. These crooks make the scanners look like a part of the actual machine you are swiping your card at. Most people don’t even know that their card numbers and pin numbers have been compromised until weird charges start showing up on their statements. And believe it or not some people don’t stay on top of their statements like they should and the criminals know that as well and are counting on banking on Americans laziness.
One in every five Americans has reported falling victim to debit card fraud. That is the fourth highest rate out of 17 countries right behind Mexico, China, and India. Not only have so many Americans been hit by this fraud but 5 percent of Americans reported being hit more than once. Most cards are FDIC insured to help protect the consumers, but the headaches begin to multiply when you have to report your card as being stolen even though it is right there in your wallet. Allot of people pay their bills online and if you happen to be one of them then the problem just got multiplied even further because the recorded card no longer works because it has been compromised. So the inconvenience thickens and starts to over whelm.
Hopefully you caught what was going on in the middle of the month and not when your bills are due or you might be sitting in the dark and unable to flush your toilets in the very near future.
When setting up online bill payments most do it as they get the individual services and fill out the online form here and there not needing to devote much time at all. Now you are faced with all accounts needing to be revised and that’s only when your get your new card mailed to you from your bank.
But that’s just your bank account if you are a business owner and one of your cards is compromised then you will have an added stress and extra work now.
If your credit is not where it should be then you use your debit card as your main form of payment. People don’t realize how much you use your debit card until you don’t have it.
Don’t start converting your funds into to gold bullion yet.
There are things you can do to combat the thieves and make it so you will never have to worry about some scum bag dipping his greedy fingers into your savings account.
Allot of fraud is reported with the internet and the numbers are going every year. One of the most popular things to do is to open up a secondary hopefully free checking account and transfer money to that account when you want to shop online or buy something at the store, this can be used in the same way with non-internet transactions. Yes it is more work but it is worth it in the long run and now that the smart phone is almost universally used by most people you can transfer funds right there allowing you to still impulse buy with little hassle.
If you have set up online bill pay or automatic bill pay then you will not need your credit cards or Debit card for those.
The main keys to protecting yourself is to always look at your bank statements and look for transactions that you don’t remember performing or look out of place.
The crooks may have made the device look like the actual scanner but nine times out of ten they did not do it perfect.
Avoid swiping your card if the scanner looks to be tampered with or has some irregularities do not scan your card, if it looks like there is something out of place, then report it and request to be moved to a new pump or go to a different machine.
Unfortunately in today’s society the ease and convenience the plastic cards offered is now replaced with added precautions that must be performed.